Mission

As Senior UAS Regulatory Specialist at Rift, you will define and deploy the short, medium and long‑term strategy to obtain, maintain, and extend our SORA based operational authorisations. You will be the primary point of contact with the DSAC, DGAC and EASA. You will bridge regulation and product design to ensure our systems are compliant from day one, with the technical and human resources needed. You will also maintain an active watch on international regulatory frameworks, notably the FAA (US), to anticipate regulatory changes and prepare the expansion of our operations beyond France and Europe.

What you will do

Regulatory strategy — Develop our regulatory roadmap (SORA, MoC, DVR), set authorisation milestones in France and Europe, and prioritise technical developments based on regulatory requirements.
Path to SAIL IV — Build our roadmap to SAIL IV, starting with SAIL III as a key step. Progressive validation of required MoCs, with clear, documented evidence at each stage. Prepare DVRs with EASA when needed, framing requirements, anticipating blockers, and ensuring technical and regulatory coherence.
SORA & authorisations — Prepare and submit complex operational authorisation applications (SORA/ConOps…) and work closely with the DSAC until approvals are granted.
Safety by design — Work daily with avionics/software/systems teams to translate OSO’s into product requirements, feed compliance matrices, and document evidences (safety analyses, tests, logs).
Documentation — Develop and maintain the documentation corpus essential to safety and regulatory compliance (MUE, MANEX, ERP, MoC compliance documentation, various records).
Training — Turn regulatory requirements into clear, actionable internal processes, and organise training sessions to ensure teams readiness.
SORA process automation — Reduce analysis and writing effort by structuring reusable templates and auto‑generation tools. With developers, set up systems to pre‑fill recurring sections, especially those related to the concept of operation (e.g., ground environment, overflight areas, density, roads, railways…).
Flight tests & demos — Organise flight tests with the DSAC and EASA to validate our innovative technologies and collect the data needed for regulatory recognition. Help shape the regulatory landscape by demonstrating solutions beyond conventional approaches.
Watch & influence — Take part in public consultations and working groups, share field feedback, and help shape European regulation in a way that supports our technologies and operating model.
Collaboration & QA — Peer‑review regulatory deliverables, prepare audits, and ensure multi‑country documentation consistency.

Profile

Senior (≈ 5+ years experience) including 2 years in the drone sector, several complete SORA operational authorisation applications submitted and granted; experience in BVLOS strongly appreciated. Strong working knowledge of the SORA methodology and the ability to sustain technical discussions with authorities (DSAC, EASA…). Concrete experience writing and validating MoC’s, and leading a DVR end‑to‑end, is a plus. Ability to decompose OSOs into product requirements and challenge architecture choices (functional safety, analyses, tests) with engineering teams. Excellent writing and communication skills (FR/EN). Comfortable in a startup environment: autonomy, prioritisation, fast decision‑making.

Don’t worry if your profile doesn’t exactly match the description, doesn’t mean you’re not the right person!

How we work

We foster a culture of care where anyone can question anyone’s ideas
Boldness is encouraged, we’d rather break the rules than follow them blindly.
We share both successes and failures openly: learning fast means failing fast.
Above all, we constantly aim to simplify. No over‑engineering. “Best part is no part.”

Hiring process

Introductory call – Get to know each other, motivations, overall fit.
Technical interview – Case study or hands‑on scenario.
Final interview – Meet the team & founders.
Reference check – Quick call with a former manager or colleague.

Who we are

Rift is building the first European long‑range drone network to protect borders, critical infrastructure, and territories. Our mission is to make real‑time aerial intelligence accessible, anywhere, anytime.

We design, build, and operate a fleet of fixed‑wing drones deployed through autonomous ground stations. Each drone covers hundreds of kilometers per flight and is fully remote‑controlled from our operations center, delivering live intelligence to security forces in crisis situations.

Rift is entering a phase of industrialization and large‑scale deployment. We're looking for talented, self‑driven individuals who want to make an impact, people ready to help build a strategic tech company that strengthens Europe’s security, sovereignty, and resilience in the face of tomorrow’s threats.

Interested in this opportunity? Apply now

Senior UAS Regulatory Specialist